The present embodiments relate generally to seals, and more particularly to seals for use within gas turbine engines.
The use of seals within gas turbine engines improves efficiency. Seals serve to prevent unintended leaks of various fluids, such as hot combustion gasses, cooling air, and lubricant, used in the operation of the gas turbine engine. By preventing such fluids from entering unintended cavities and other locations, the gas turbine engine is able to make more work out of the fluid. However, in order for seals to prevent unintended leakage and improve efficiency, the seals must be configured in appropriate locations within the gas turbine engine.
Often, seals are required to be positioned within the gas turbine engine at locations which can be difficult to access, necessitating at times a blind assembly. Consequently, assembly of the seal in its appropriate location can be complicated and time consuming. For example, some current seals are designed to be snap-fit to an interfacing structure to both center the seal and create a substantially air-tight interface. However, assembling the snap-fit seal in position can be a blind assembly further complicated by a tightly toleranced snap-fit between the seal and the interfacing structure required to create the air-tight interface. One solution to simplify this blind assembly is to apply heat to the interfacing structure to cause the interfacing structure to expand and thus ease the snap-fit. Nevertheless, this increases the time needed to assemble the seal in position, and especially when compounded with numerous other seal assemblies within the same engine, further acts to increase the complexity and costs associated with assembling the seals.